"Don't worry about Aries; tomorrow night he goes to his makeup class at the lyceum. The Grand Pouncer--that's Uther--will call an emergency meeting, and we'll run you through. It's as simple as that."
"Aries will be upset."
Kirdy said ponderously: "I know this. I don't like it but we've had our orders. Aries must learn how to cope with small adversities." Rising to his feet, Kirdy said:
"Tomorrow evening, then, in the Den."
Kirdy went off about his affairs. Glawen looked to where Wayness had been sitting but discovered that she had departed the terrace.
During the evening Glawen tried to concentrate on serious matters but at last he jumped to his feet and telephoned Wayness at River view House.
"It's Glawen."
Wayness' voice seemed cautiously friendly.
"The instant I heard the chime I knew it was you! A clear case of telepathy!"
"Or anxiety?"
"Oh, perhaps a bit of anxiety," said Wayness carelessly.
"But please don't be stern with me."
"Are you busy?"
"No more than usual. Why do you ask?"
"May I come to see you?"
"Here? At Riverview House?"
"Certainly; where else?"
There was a pause of three seconds, then a somewhat dubious response: "That would be nice. However ..."
Glawen waited, but the silence persisted. Finally, in a flat voice, he said: "Very well. I won't come."
Wayness said: "I don't quite know how to explain ... Except simply state the facts. You can come if you like. But after you leave, I'll have to participate in another earnest discussion with my mother."
"Another?"
"After we came home from sailing I made the mistake of telling her that it was a beautiful day and that I liked you."
"She disapproves of me?"
"No, but that's not the point. She's convinced that it's unpractical for me to see you, except on a very polite and impersonal basis. She says that anything else can't possibly lead anywhere, and she wonders why I am not sufficiently clearheaded to see this for myself. I can only say that I, too, am perplexed. Then she becomes analytical. She asks a rhetorical question: suppose the relationship proceeded and we were even foolish enough to marry? To save me the exertion of thinking, she answers the question herself. It would turn out to be a tragedy, says Mother. Where would we live? On Stroma? Not feasible. You would be a fish out of water. At Clattuc House? The same applies to me." Wayness gave a soft laugh.
"Of course she's right; I can't argue with her. Then she asks the question I keep asking myself:
What am I going to do with my life? Unlike me, she has an answer."
"And his first name is Julian."
"I learn that it's an opportunity which comes only once in a lifetime. I tell her that I don't want to worry about such things just yet. She explains that time has a way of sliding past, and before you know it, you're stringy and gaunt and your back hurts, and where are the opportunities now? Gone. This leaves me depressed and tired. Tonight I'm not up to it, and I think that you'd better not come."
"Does that mean tomorrow night too, and all the other nights?"
Wayness laughed again: a rather desperate sound.
"It does sound like that, doesn't it? I'll have to ponder on this.
I'm not meek, but I want no more dreary discussions with Mother, especially when she may be right."
"Just as you like."
"Glawen! Now you're angry with me!"
"I don't know what to think. On top of all else, I now must become a Bold Lion, and I sorely wish that Bodwyn Wook were learning the roars and growls instead of me."
Wayness tried to maintain a tone of sober sympathy, without total success.
"You're probably being prepared for an important mission;
when you learn the details you'll no doubt think better of the program, despite the yelps and howls."
"Roars and growls, to be exact."
"In either case it's a recondite skill, totally unknown to Julian Bohost--who, incidentally, is coming to visit Riverview House before too long. Perhaps you'll want to meet him."
